Monument to victims of abuse is an insult
Letters to the Editor, Irish Independent. Friday 23rd October 2009
The proposed €500,000 “memorial to victims of child abuse” (Aine Kerr, Letters, October 19) bearing the words of Mr Bertie Ahern’s 1999 “apology” to Ireland’s former child prisoners is an expensive and offensive political gesture.
The planned structure is not a memorial to the victims; it is a monument to Mr Ahern, a former Taoiseach whose utterances few take seriously now.
Readers may remember that in 1999 Mr Ahern (then Taoiseach) issued the following statement, which is now to appear on the memorial:
“On behalf of the State and all the citizens of the State, the Government wishes to make a sincere and long overdue apology to the victims of childhood abuse for our collective failure to intervene, to detect their pain, to come to their rescue”.
That statement is not an apology but a denial and a deception. It is simply not true to say that the State failed to detect the pain being suffered by the child prisoners. Time and again that pain was reported to the State and the politicians each time dismissed the reports and tried to discredit the messenger.
Even Fr Flanagan, an Irish American priest who in 1946, drew attention to the ill-treatment of the child prisoners was dismissed as a liar by the Minister for Education, Sean Moylan in the Dail.
Besides, the State’s reformatory rules, which were published for all to read, authorised the infliction of pain upon the inmates.
Naked flogging of the child prisoners was approved and condoned by successive Ministers for Education and their inspectors into the 1990s.
Only in Ahern logic can you authorise violence and then deny all knowledge of it.
A memorial bearing Mr Ahern’s fake apology will be a permanent reminder of Ireland’s denial and a standing offence to its former child prisoners.
The Ryan Report on Ireland’s child prisons (May, 2009) recommended the construction of the memorial and claimed, with Ahern-type logic, that the structure would somehow “alleviate … the effects of abuse on those who suffered”!
But Justice Sean Ryan failed to explain how Bertie’s denial carved in stone would work its magic on the former child prisoners.
I escaped from Artane prison and from Ireland in 1963. I am one of many thousands of child prison refugees. Ireland denies me the simple justice I request, namely, the recision of the illegal detention order that put me in Artane.
Consequently, I shall renounce Irish nationality and never set foot in Ireland again. I will therefore, thankfully, never experience the memorial’s miraculous healing powers.
The memorial is a political stunt. It has nothing whatever to do with alleviating the suffering of the victims. It has to do with salving the collective conscience of a nation racked by unacknowledged guilt for the mass-persecution of its children in the post-independence era. It is a monumental insult to Ireland’s former child prisoners.
JIM BERESFORD
FORMER ARTANE CHILD PRISONER 14262
SALENDINE NOOK, HUDDERSFIELD
Jim, I grew up in the same house as that man and we had sausages, rashers and eggs galore according to him …………. Goody is what I remember eating ad infinitum. His uncle and mine tells me they only ever ate meat one day a week (sunday) so rashers, sausages etc. were out of the equation. Mind you he’s the same fella’ who ransacked the uncle’s house looking for information on the mother and stole all his diaries. This uncle refused to speak to me or my other brother in the US thinking we were part of the robbery! Check out his Directorship of Soca Ltd in the UK and then he plays ball with us as though he’s one of us! A leopard never changed his spots! He’s been outed now!
More ad hominen attacks from you Jim as you avoid the question! How many times did you try to ‘leg it’ in the three years you spent in Artane?
I don’t have ANY complaints against you Jim – despite what the voices inside your head are telling you.
You want me to help you out but I don’t normally drop what’s imprortant to me and pay attention to you and all of your needs but I’ll make an exception in your case … and all I can say to you … the same way you came in.
Mr. Beresford (as you wish to be so formal). I don’t see me as having been handed a “poisoned chalice”. The canvass must be blank because those of us nominated to the memorial committee haven’t even met yet. What you do with Mr. O’Keeffe is of course a matter for yourself.
As for “Andrew”. You hardly expect me to speak for him do you? What I can say is that his writing is always clear and to the point.
Dear Mr Doyle,
Thank you for your reply.
I do hope you’re right about the blank canvass. My impression was that Mr O’Keeffe had handed you a poisoned chalice. I will write to him requesting the omission of the offensive inscription.
If “Andrew” won’t state his complaints against me then I can’t answer them. In any case, I fear his problem may be beyond my capacity to help though I’m ready to help in any way I can. Psychiatrists were only of limited help to the lady obsessed by Queen Juliana. Even ECT didn’t help much. It was very sad.
Yours, Jim Beresford
Just the one troubled woman in your life Jim ? You should get out and mix a bit more!
Jim lectures me in the style of the wafer-munchers – on an altar made from the flotsam and jetsam of his own hypocricy. Using big words Jim is surely the sign of a big mouth – and a big head to go along with it. You’ll be pleased to know that I bypassed your paragraphs of pschyo-babble but thank you for confirming my observation that you direct your attack at survivors – ad hominen attacks they’re called.
And my question to you still stands unanswered. Could you provide an answer before you ‘leg’ it from Ireland?
Jim,
You must be aware that the first meeting of the Memorial Committed hasn’t happened yet. As far as I’m concerned we are looking at a ‘blank canvas’. Nothing has been decided as far as I’m aware and before anything IS decided it will be discussed with survivors. Contrary to what many ‘survivors representatives’ appear to believe, consultation will happen.
As for you’re comments regarding Andrew. Perhaps he will decide to respond to you himself. I wouldn’t dare to speak for anyone without their specific permission to do so.
Paddy
Dear Mr Doyle,
I once knew a troubled young woman who developed an elaborate fantasy that Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was conspiring to harm her. She spoke of Juliana with venom and blamed her for all her troubles. She sent the queen voluminous hate-mail. She didn’t know Juliana, so exactly why she chose that monarch as a target for her fantasies was a mystery to everyone, including the troubled lady herself.
Your contributor, “Andrew” (26.10.09) – if that’s his real name – seems to have made me the target for similar fantasies. He doesn’t know me, I don’t know him, we have never met or communicated, and yet “Andrew” addresses me with a creepy familiarity. I haven’t a clue who he is, but “Andrew” seems to hold me responsible for his childhood traumas and for his present mental turmoil. That is surely powerful testimony to the psychological damage done to some of the child prisoners. Fortunately, that kind of delusional state is amenable to psychotherapeutic intervention. I’m no expert on these things but I’m told that the sufferer often finds catharsis in listing and analysing his imaginary grievances.
If the unfortunate “Andrew” will identify himself and post up a detailed description of exactly how he imagines I have blighted his life, I promise to do my best to address his concerns. Should his delusional condition persist after that, I will try to find him some professional help. Meanwhile, please assure “Andrew” that I bear him no animus, if that’s any comfort to him.
Incidentally, I’d be grateful if any reader can decipher what “Andrew” is trying to say about me in his rather confused contribution – or if any reader can identify him for that matter.
I’ve spent rather longer than I had intended on “Andrew’s” problem. To return to the issue:
Mr Justice Sean Ryan says: “a memorial should be erected” and “should be inscribed with” the words of Bertie Ahern’s notorious 1999 denial.
I’m not a great fan of monuments and, frankly, I can think of a hundred and one better uses for the money. Still, I have expressed no objection to a memorial per se. However, for the reasons stated in my letter to the Irish Independent, I strongly object to a memorial bearing the inscription specified by Mr Ryan. That inscription is a State lie and cannot be any part of an appropriate memorial to those who suffered human rights violations at the hand of the Irish State.
I respect those who take a different view and it is surely possible to discuss this matter rationally without descending into acrimony and ad hominem argument. The State classifies us all (the ex-prisoners) as subnormal delinquents. (The State stores our records at the Special Education Section (Athlone) and “special”, in this context, means subnormal). Lets not give comfort to the delinquent State by confirming its wicked prejudices.
Your contributor Martha threatens to demolish the proposed memorial if it is erected. While I understand her anger, I strongly deprecate her threat – which I’m sure she would wish to withdraw on reflection. I just want to clarify this, Mr Doyle, because it is important that I do so: I am not a monument defacer, nor do I advocate such vandalism. (I deplored the destruction of Nelson’s Pillar). I’d rather the inscribed monument wasn’t erected, but I expect it will be – given that, for reasons of mutual convenience, the State and the “survivor groups” share the Ahern-Ryan interpretation of history. In the event the proposed monument, incorporating the fake history, comes into being I would take the view that it should stand forever unmolested as a constant reminder that “the State and all the citizens of the State” deny knowledge of, and responsibility for the Ireland’s human rights crimes against its child prisoners.
I appreciate that your memorial committee hasn’t yet had its first meeting, Mr Doyle, but I just want to raise a few questions about the committee’s remit (as set out in Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s statement of 18.10.09).
Your committee is tasked to “consider the views of the survivor groups in relation to the location and nature of the memorial to be erected”.
Am I correct in assuming that the Ahern inscription, as an aspect of the “nature of the memorial”, is already decided, and is therefore not for your committee to decide – whatever may be the views of “survivor groups”?
Your committee is further briefed to “make recommendations on the location and nature of the memorial in a manner that best takes account of the views of the groups representing the survivors…”
Who or what are these “groups representing the survivors…”? Do you have a list of these groups that you can send me? (presumably you will need a list if you are to consult them). And who qualifies as a “survivor”? Does that term embrace those who have rejected or been excluded from the State’s “reparation measures”?
Mr O’Keeffe seems to assume that certain groups represent “the survivors”. I’m not aware of any “group” that can be said to represent the ex-prisoners. I’m aware that some self-styled “group leaders” claim a representative role but, to the best of my knowledge, they’ve never balloted “the survivors” or even their putative “membership”. Moreover, most of these “group leaders” have long been in the pay of the State (and who pays the piper calls the tune). How will your committee decide whether a given “group” represents the “the survivors” – or indeed anyone at all, come to that?
I am certainly not represented by the self-appointed gruppenfuhrers who have lined their pockets with public money by doing the State’s bidding. When such people present ideas for a memorial perhaps you could ask them how much they have taken in State bribes. Its a fair question, Mr Doyle.
I’m not represented by any “group”. Does that mean that your memorial committee will not (as per the O’Keefe statement) take my views into account?
I do not claim to represent any of “the survivors”. Does that mean that your memorial committee will not take my views into account?
I note that the design of the memorial is open to competition. Are the entrants obliged to incorporate the Ahern inscription in their designs?
Is your committee permitted to consider a design that omits the inscription?
Am I eligible to enter a design?
I’m sorry to trouble you with these questions at this stage but I’m sure you appreciate that they will need to be answered at some point.
Yours,Jim Beresford,former Artane prisoner 14262, jim@kilbrew.fsnet.co.uk
I agree with you Martha … they’re hypocrites. I spoke to a Fianna Failer in the early 70s – and I was no more than 4 years or so out of the institutions at the time – and this guy had taken on the might of the British Empire yet he wouldn’t take on the Religious Orders over the obscenities in the Institutions. In the early to mid 80s I spoke to a Labour TD about the Institutions and he basically showed me the door.
There was an irony involved in the first meeting with the Government post-Ryan Report in Government Buildings – I’d been to Government Buildings before – in 1971 as a soldier guarding it … and I was no more than six months out of the Institutions!
It would be foolish to allow these politicians even partial ownership of the Ryan Report or whatever memorial arises from it. In my view it’s our voices now and futures actions towards the vulnerable in society that should determine the shape of any memorial.
Paddy,
The reason I’m so angry about this particular memorial is that (as I understand it) its sounds more like a monument to Bertie Ahern and his FF/RC cohorts. I agree with Michael Hull’s (top comment) suggestion that the survivors themselves design and erect their own monument/memorial, without ANY input from our “government”.
Personally, I wouldn’t give the time of day to any of our so-called leaders, male or female. As far as I’m concerned, they are nothing but a bunch of two-faced hypocrites!
We already have a memorial. It has structure and meaning. It’s the books and the films where our voices are heard. It was built brick by brick from Peter Tyrrell’s letters in ‘Founded on Fear’, Fr. Flanagan’s letters in the mid 1940s, Mannix Flynn’s ‘Nothing To Say’, Mavis Arnold and Heather Laskey’s ‘Children of the Poor Clares’, Paddy Doyles’ ‘The God Squad’, Bernadette Fahey’s ‘Freedom of Angels’, Mary Raftery & Eoin O’Sullivan’s “States of Fear” ….. all the way to the Ryan Report.
Empty vessels make most sound! Very appropriate here!
Martha wrote “I’d be one of the first to pull down that disgusting monument!” Before doing that might I respectfully suggest Martha that you at least wait until the Memorial Committee has had its first meeting. As a member of the Memorial Committee, I realise that there are many thousands of people and their “representatives” who have openly asked the Government to ensure that some sort of memorial be erected/established to the many people who were abused while in institutional care.
While one accepts your view to pull down anything, you might consider the many, many people who don’t agree with either you’re view or that of Mr. Beresford.
Michael. The Government has appointed a Committee to oversee the implementation of the Memorial. I’ve been asked to take a ‘seat’ on the Committee and am for now happy to do so, despite the abuse being thrown at me from some people who claim I know nothing about abuse. Beyond that I won’t comment as the Memorial Committee hasn’t met yet.
Dear Jim
I hear you’re ‘legging’ it Jim ….. AT LAST! Speaking for myself who ‘legged’ it any chance I got in my 13 years of incarceration and met some fine people on my escapades, particularly members of the Travelling Community … but that’s by-the-by as I’m particularly puzzled as to why your attempts at ‘legging it’ from Artane amount to …. zilch … nada … zero – – despite the fact that most of your time in Artane appears to have been OUTSIDE Artane – or am I mistaken !!!! And here’s me with my 13 years of incarceration and in that time I was on an hourly watch by the black garbs and STILL managed to avoid their grasp on at least 20 occasions! Could you elaborate Jim please on your ‘legging it’ attempts !!
A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past events. Your attempt to rubbish us is an insult and says more about you. You of course were completely against the Child Abuse Commission and, I suppose, it’s publication and the effects of it’s publication [THE AFTERMATH] has lessened your status and, human nature being what it is, you feel the need to ‘lash out’ – except of course you lash out at survivors again. Par for the course for you Jim it seems.
The only real memorial would be to re-name the 17th of March Paddies Day in memory of all the victims and to tell the world that the Irish people believe in Tolerance, Fairness and Inclusion and not all the opposites that Fianna Fail and the foreign Church they work for represent.
Welll said, Jim Beresford!
As you rightly sum up your brilliantly HONEST letter:
“It is a monumental insult to Ireland’s former child prisoners.”
I, for one, was not at all impressed by Bertie Ahern’s feigned hypocritical “apology”. One doesn’t need to be super-intelligent to know that Ahern and his FF colleagues (like that vast majority of those in power in Ireland) are devoid of any normal human morality and that’s because their sick mentality was shaped by Roman Catholic dogma. They haven’t got an empathetic bone in their bodies. All they care about is Power & Glory – and Money is their God!!! I’d be one of the first to pull down that disgusting monument!
Martha
Unfortunately, this memorial, like so many others is a tribute to some sleazy politician and nothing else. They love to see their words in print, whether in the newspapers or carved in stone on some memorial.
Let an appointed group of survivors come up with their own, or hold a contest for any survivors wishing to take part send in their own ideas. Some will be surprisingly good. Pick the best and use it.
Of course, the government will not fund it then, but I say the Hell with them, and who needs it anyway. Just my opinion.